The present invention relates to a safety system or apparatus for protecting a person or persons in a vehicle, and more specifically to a safety cable system or apparatus for protecting a driver by retracting a steering column and increasing a belt tension of a seat belt assembly in response to a backward movement of an engine of the vehicle in a head-on collision of the vehicle.
Japanese Utility Model Provisional (KOKAI) Publication No. 52-119226 discloses a safety cable system connecting a seat belt assembly and a steering column. This cable system is arranged to retract the steering column toward the front of the vehicle by utilizing a belt tension produced by an inertial force of a seat occupant in a vehicle's collision (primary collision) in order to reduce the danger of a collision between the steering wheel and the head or upper torso of the driver (secondary collision). In this cable system, however, the belt tension is not produced until the driver is thrown toward the front of the vehicle through a predetermined distance. Therefore, this system entails a delay in securing the driver with the seat belt.
FIG. 3 shows another prior art safety cable system which includes a cable 1 having one end connected with a seat belt 2 of a front passenger seat, and the other end which is bifurcated into a first branch portion connected with a seat belt 3 of a driver's seat, and a second branch portion connected with a steering column 4. The cable 1 is passed round two support posts 5 and hooked by an engine 6, as shown in FIG. 3. In a head-on collision of the vehicle, the engine 6 is shoved backward to a position shown by a broken line in FIG. 3. Therefore, the cable 1 increases the tensions of the seat belts 2 and 3, and at the same time pulls the steering column 4 together with a steering wheel 7 toward the front of the vehicle.
When the seat belts 2 and 3 are in a fastened (restraint) state for protecting a seat occupant, this cable system can protect the driver and passenger against a secondary collision by immediately increasing the belt tension on a primary collision. However, when the driver's seat belt 3 is not in the fastened state, that is, the driver is not secured by the seat belt 3, then the steering column 4 is retracted by the cable 1 before a secondary collision of the driver, and therefore, the steering column 4 becomes unable to absorb the energy of the secondary collision.